After Bio, I had English Lit and then a free, now it was lunch, the hour I had been waiting for all morning.

I walked towards where I remembered the cafeteria to be when I was suddenly pushed up against the lockers. I looked up in a panic and came face to face with a smirking Aiden. I look up at him expectantly but I'm pretty sure that the nervousness was evident on my face.

"You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen" he smirks at me, I blush at his comment but say nothing, probably because I don't think I would be physically able to form words right now, I'm not stupid, I knew his words were nothing more than cheap flirting but something about the way he said it made me believe it, even just for a minute. As much as I had tried to look unaffected, I'm pretty sure that it was pretty obvious how affected I was by the proximity, words never meant much to me but I had always been someone that believed actions spoke louder than words, and to me, his proximity was an action.

Aiden smirks at how affected I was and uses it to his advantage to push himself further onto me.

"I think you would be even more beautiful with your clothes off, I say we go into that spare room and prove my theory to be correct" he smirks leaning his face closer to mine.

The blush instantly abandons my face and I roll my eyes. I can't believe I almost fell for that when all he wanted was to get in my pants. The previous embarrassment is replaced by frustration at my naive self and I shove his shoulder forcefully making him stumble back a little in surprise at my quick mood change. "Do you seriously have nothing better to do than hit on girls, I don't know who you think I am but just to make it clear, I'm not one of your helpless girls that fall under your charm. I'm not into man whores, and just to avoid any further confusion, you and I will never sleep together."

He looks at me in complete and utter surprise, I'm assuming that rejection isn't something the bad boy is used to. His evident shock makes him lower his guard and I use the distraction to my full benefit while I walk away and towards the cafeteria, I know for a fact that he was watching me walk away in awe and just to make the scene all the more dramatic, I make sure I sway my hips just that little bit extra.

I may have seemed confident throughout that whole encounter but to be honest, I had no idea where that confidence came from, in reality, I was still a nervous wreck.

I make sure to fully control my breathing before I walk into the cafeteria to face my best friend and cousin.

I had seen them instantly, It was probably because Charlie was standing on her chair waving her arms up in the air to get my immediate attention but nonetheless it worked. I giggled at her antics and made my way to them when my path was once again blocked by some other guy I had never seen before.

He was attractive but not really my type, he was blonde with almost silver eyes and a charming smile, not one that a player would wear, but a nice guy smile. "Hey it's Em right? the mystery boy asks smiling.

"Yeah" I reply smiling hesitantly, I wasn't sure where this was going.

"My name is Ryan and I was wondering if you were free Friday night and maybe wanted to hang out" he replies.

Is he asking me out on a date?

"I'm sorry, I'm not really looking to date at the moment" I reject awkwardly, I had been doing a lot of rejection today.

"No problem!! I totally understand but if you ever change your mind you know where to find me" he replies sweetly. I smile back at him and nod as we go our separate ways.

I had been asked out before but it surprised me that I had been here less than a day and someone was willing to ask me out before they even knew me.

"What did Ryan say to you?" Luke asks as soon as I arrive at my friend's table causing Charlie to roll her eyes.

"He asked me out" I question, still a little surprised about what just happened.

"What did you say?" Luke continues.

I wasn't surprised, he had always been very protective of me and had always hated any guy I was interested in.

"No, I told him I wasn't ready" I reply shrugging.

Luke nods, obviously pleased with my answer.

Charlie rolls her eyes again at Luke's protectiveness, I expect she's just fed up with how overprotective of us he had always been.

"Also, Charlie told me you were in the same group as the assholes in bio" Luke questions.

"Yeah, Toby got Charlie and me to join up with them. It's not like I wanted to be in the same group as the untouchables" I mumble mostly to myself but loud enough for Luke and Charlie to hear.

"The untouchables?" Charlie questions.

"Yeah, I mean it seems to me that the boys are the untouchables of the school, you know ultra-popular with girls wanting to date them and boys wanting to be them, or at the very least be friends with them, but no one is good enough to intrude on their untouchable group" I explain casually.

"That's kinda perfect actually" Charlie replies astounded, Luke just rolls his eyes at the mention of his least favorite group.

"Just stay away from them, especially Aiden and Blake, they're bad news," Luke warns.

I roll my eyes, "I know Lukas, I'm smarter than you give me credit for," I laugh, leaning my head on his shoulder. Plus, I didn't think I'd be hearing from Aiden in a while after our little chat earlier in the corridor.

I look at Charlie to see if she was planning to input anything to our conversation but notice she looks quite upset.

She is looking at her hands, not realizing I was noticing her state with her head down.

"Charlie are you okay?" I ask her making Luke look at her worriedly as well.

"What? Yeah, I'm fine, just thinking about how annoying the so-called untouchables are, especially Aiden and Blake" She laughs forcefully, maybe something is wrong.

"Guys we need to hang out this weekend, I feel like I haven't hung out with the both of you in way too long" Charlie continues, a lot more cheerily.

The previous thoughts of her not being okay completely evade my mind and it's replaced with excitement about finally hanging out with my two favorite people in the world instead.

***

I was finally home, the day went by relatively quickly after lunch. There were rumors going around about me but nothing too bad just yet.

Today was going to be the best day ever. Why you ask? My Labradoodle Nala was arriving today.

We didn't want her to get here the first day at our new house because we wanted some time to unpack so she had stayed with my grandmother who was dropping her off later. I had named her Nala 2 1/2 years ago when we had first adopted her from the pound. She had allowed me to live out my Disney fantasy because let's be honest. Who doesn't love Disney?

My window had remained closed with the curtain covering my window since the encounter with the bad boy's last night and I didn't really have any intention to open it any time soon. Especially not after today.

"Emmy?" Robert knocks on my door smiling.

I close the book I had been reading to look up to him and match his smile.

We really were lucky to have Robert.

"Your nan just called, she's on her way with Nala" He smiled, making my grin widen to an impossible length.

"How was your first day?" He asks leaning against my door frame.

"Good, some guy asked me out" I reply remembering the event and scrunching up my nose making Robert laugh.

"Do I need to get out the guns?" he asks protectively.

"Not yet, when are you going to teach me how to shoot one, let me come to work with you," I ask again making Robert laugh. I had always wanted Robert to teach me the basics of self-defense, and eventually, he did but he still hasn't taught me to shoot a gun. I think the main reason was that if he agreed to teach me then he would also have to teach Elijah and as a young boy into a lot of shooting X-box games, he didn't think it was a good idea.

"What is happening up here?" My mother smiles up at her fiance lovingly and kisses him softly on the cheek.

"Robert was just agreeing to take me into work with him this weekend and teach me how to shoot a gun" I grin cheekily at Robert.

"Soon Emmy, I promise" he smiles at me before returning his loving gaze to my mother.

I smile at the couple who were still so much in love with awe. I wanted a relationship like that, one that always seemed to be new and exciting. Seeing my mother and Robert together made me believe in love, it was nice to see after everything that happened with my biological father.

"Anyways Emmy, I just wanted to let you know that Nan has just turned up" My mother smiles at me.

I jump up completely discarding my book and sprint to the door pushing through my mother and stepfather and hearing their lingering laughs, but I was too excited to see my baby to care.

"ELIJAH" I yell as I run, "SHE'S HERE."

I almost instantly hear Elijah's heavy footsteps running towards my direction, obviously excited to see Nala. Although she was my dog, Elijah had always loved her.

I run downstairs just in time to see my nan's smiling face opening our front door and Nala running ahead of her making her chuckle.

Everyone loved Nala including my nan.

"Hi baby" I coo as I kneel down and instantly get attacked by my favorite living thing in the world. Nala jumps on my lap knocking me over and licks my face. I laugh trying to push her off, eventually, she sits in front of me, her tail wagging a million miles per hour and her tongue hanging out of her mouth.

"Hey girl" Elijah coo's beside me as he sits down and pats her fur. Nala licked his face making him laugh, she was obviously enjoying all the attention she was getting. Even mom and Robert began patting her.

"What about me?" nan chuckles, opening her arms so Elijah and I can hug her.

"Sorry nan" I laugh at her cheeky smile and follow Elijah's actions, walking up to her and hugging her.

"Awe, I missed my grandbabies" my nan smiles as she kisses us on the cheek again.

"Nannnnn, I'm not a baby anymore" Elijah groans wiping of nan's lipstick stains.

"Hello Maggie" Robert smiles and she hugs him, smiling at him.

"Hey mom" my mother smiles as she kisses nan's cheek.

"Oh kids, while you're both here I better mention that the lovely lady next door has invited us over to their house tomorrow for dinner" my mom smiles.

Oh no, does she mean Aiden's house?

"Oh cool, what side?" I ask hesitantly, feigning excitement.

Much to my dismay mom points towards Aiden's house, "the lovely lady over there" she smiles. As much as I want to interject I know that my mom needs more friends her age, she only really had Mel who was Luke's mom and my Auntie Jen who was Charlie's mom. I knew that Mel had introduced my mother to her other best friend from Luke, apparently, she had a daughter that attended Peralacre High named Tiffany and Luke was telling me how happy his mom was that my mother and her other best friend had really hit it off.

I think next weekend my mother may have even had a plan for herself and my aunt Jen to meet Mel's other friend for brunch on Sunday. My mother, Mel, and auntie Jen had been a little group for as long as I could remember, apparently my mother had introduced aunt Jen to Mel and they had gotten along so well that the 3 of them became a little group.

"Oh that sounds great mom" I reply, trying my hardest to make my fake excitement believable.

She obviously falls for it because she smiles a huge smile and kisses my cheek.

Tomorrow should be interesting...